Camp Number 3, Shady Spring, April 29, 1862.
Dearest : — We are camped in a beautiful healthy place at the foot of Flat Top Mountain, on the line between Raleigh and Mercer Counties, Virginia. The whole “surroundings” are exhilarating— just enough of enemy’s guerrillas to keep men awake. We are in the advance, the only grumbling being because we are not allowed to push on as fast as we would like. . . . Our only drawback is the frequency of rain-storms. I don’t know but they prepare our minds to appreciate more keenly the bright bracing air that succeeds them.
I need not say that I read all the accounts of the great battle. We made a narrow escape there. It will probably save us from similar disasters in the next two or three engagements. We fear we have lost four good men in a scout a few days back. They disobeyed or neglected a positive order and have, I fear, been captured or worse.
You must, I suppose, be getting ready for a move northwardly. I hope you will enjoy the new home as much as we have the old one. I do not quite feel like giving up the old home yet, but when I think of the boys, I think of it as a duty we owe to them. . . .
Affectionately, dearest, your loving husband,
R.
P. S. — Our four lost men escaped. They were fired on but have got back safely. It is hard to punish men over whose escape we are so rejoiced, but it must be done.
Mrs. Hayes.
Camp 3, Shady Spring, Tuesday, April 29, 1862. — Rain fell at intervals last night; falling in a “drizzling manner” this morning. Colonel Scammon says we have rifled muskets at Gauley. If good long-range pieces, this is good. We must have pieces that will carry half a mile, or we shall never hit these fellows in western Virginia. Sent Lieutenant Bottsford with Company C sixteen miles after Foley’s bushwhackers.
APRIL 29TH.—Major Griswold is here, and so is a new batch of Marylanders.
Tuesday, 29th—We received orders this afternoon to march out towards Purdy, about twelve miles, to be in readiness as a supporting column to General Wallace in command of the right. He was expecting to be attacked by the rebels and sent for reinforcements. We went in light marching order without knapsacks, and we have to lie on our arms at night.
April 29th. We have been lying quietly at our anchorage here for two or three days, negotiating about the city and its flag and transfer. The river is alive with steamers which our people have taken possession of, and are gliding about seemingly practicing for duty by-and-by; among others, a fine steamer, the Tennessee, has been taken possession of and will doubtless prove quite a prize for us. The rebel gunboat McRae came up from the forts with a flag of truce, asking permission to bury her dead, but instead, watched her chance and scuttled her in deep water.
This morning a gunboat from the forts brought the pleasing intelligence that Forts Jackson and St. Philip had both surrendered to our forces below, and that a powerful floating battery, mounting eighteen guns and covered with railroad iron, had been fired and drifted down the river and blown up. This intelligence called all hands into the rigging, and they gave three times three cheers for the Union. At nine o’clock A. M., the marines of the squadron, under the command of Capt. J. L. Broome, went ashore to hoist the flag, backed by the howitzers; they proceeded to the Custom House and gave the Star-Spangled Banner to the breeze; thence they went to the Council House and lowered the State flag and brought it aboard as a trophy. Crowds of people frequent the levee to gaze on the shipping from day to day.
At 6:30 A. M., Capt. Bailey brought word up from below, that both forts had surrendered, and the Stars and Stripes were waving over them. At 3 P. M., Mr. Osbon, Flag Lieutenant, left the ship to go on board the gunboat Cayuga; as he was leaving, gave him three cheers. Cayuga, Capt. Bailey in command, went down the river, bound North with dispatches. Manned the rigging, and cheered ship.
29th. Baggage train and remainder of companies came in. Letter from Lucy Randall and several papers—rich treat. Wrote to Will Hudson.
29th.—A quiet day. Men seem cheerful and happy, but sickness increases. No medicines nor hospital stores, except those furnished by Sanitary Commission. I must take the liberty of thinking our Medical Director deficient in—something. What should we do now without the Sanitary Commission?
April 29.—About one hundred sick men were brought in last night, on their way to another hospital. We gave them coffee, bread, and meat, with which they were much pleased. Some of them were too sick to eat this, so we gave these the few eggs we had.
General Sterling Price, with a part of his army, has arrived. He is in this hospital. We were all introduced to him. He gave us his left hand, as his right was disabled from a wound received at the battle of Elkhorn. I told him that I felt that we were safe in Corinth now, since he and his brave followers had arrived. He gave me a very dignified bow, and, I thought, looked at me as if he thought that I was talking a great deal of nonsense. He was not behind his sex in complimenting the ladies for the sacrifices they are making in doing their duty. I have heard so much of that lately, that I sometimes wonder if the southern women never did their duty before. I meant what I said to the general, and I felt quite proud of the honor I enjoyed in shaking hands with him whose name has become a household word with all admirers of true patriotism, and whose deeds of heroism in the West have endeared him to his followers, so that they look on him more as a father than any thing else.
In the afternoon he visited the patients. Many of them were men who had fought under him, and all were delighted to see him. One of them, Captain Dearing, was wounded at the battle of Shiloh. He was quarter-master in Blythe’s Mississippi Regiment, and when the battle came off could not resist the temptation of engaging in it. He is badly wounded in two places, but is doing well. He is from Kentucky, but is a native of the Emerald Isle. I can not help contrasting these men with those born in the South, they seem to be able to endure physically so much more than the southerners. We have had quite a number of them, and I do not recollect that any have died.
Civil War envelope showing American flags, eagle with laurel branches, and shield bearing message “Union and liberty”
Addressed to Mr. Asa Foote, Fowler, Trumbull Co., Ohio; postmarked; bears 3 cent stamp. Notation on verso: Gallipolis, Ohio.
Collection: Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of Congress)
This envelope and additional information may be found here at the Library of Congress
April 29th.—A grand smash, the news from New Orleans fatal to us. Met Mr. Weston. He wanted to know where he could find a place of safety for two hundred negroes. I looked into his face to see if he were in earnest; then to see if he were sane. There was a certain set of two hundred negroes that had grown to be a nuisance. Apparently all the white men of the family had felt bound to stay at home to take care of them. There are people who still believe negroes property—like Noah’s neighbors, who insisted that the Deluge would only be a little shower after all.
These negroes, however, were Plowden Weston’s, a totally different part of speech. He gave field-rifles to one company and forty thousand dollars to another. He is away with our army at Corinth. So I said: “You may rely upon Mr. Chesnut, who will assist you to his uttermost in finding a home for these people. Nothing belonging to that patriotic gentleman shall come to grief if we have to take charge of them on our own place.” Mr. Chesnut did get a place for them, as I said he would.
Had to go to the Governor’s or they would think we had hoisted the black flag. Heard there we are going to be beaten as Cortez beat the Mexicans—by superior arms. Mexican bows and arrows made a poor showing in the face of Spanish accoutrements. Our enemies have such superior weapons of war, we hardly any but what we capture from them in the fray. The Saxons and the Normans were in the same plight.
War seems a game of chess, but we have an unequal number of pawns to begin with. We have knights, kings, queens, bishops, and castles enough. But our skilful generals, whenever they can not arrange the board to suit them exactly, burn up everything and march away. We want them to save the country. They seem to think their whole duty is to destroy ships and save the army.
Mr. Robert Barnwell wrote that he had to hang his head for South Carolina. We had not furnished our quota of the new levy, five thousand men. To-day Colonel Chesnut published his statement to show that we have sent thirteen thousand, instead of the mere number required of us; so Mr. Barnwell can hold up his head again.
